TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Ground/Sea Vehicles, Electronics

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: Marine Corps PM Expeditionary Power Systems, Michael Gallagher

OBJECTIVE: Develop and demonstrate an innovative Man Portable Power Unit that can utilize in-service military batteries as back-up power and battery charger.

DESCRIPTION: Many Marine Corps missions require operations where AC grid power is not available. Within these types of operations many applications utilize small portable batteries to meet power requirements for the individual Marine and utilize portable generator power to operate more stationary facilities. Maintaining uninterrupted power at these stationary facilities can be critical. Portable generators used to supply power to these facilities, though reliable, can be taken off-line for various reasons unexpectedly and for random periods of time. Therefore, an Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) is needed that will not add significant weight or logistical burden. Current off-the-self UPS�s use non-military batteries as their energy storage device, making the system inflexible for other non-UPS applications. These systems also do not have the flexible input and output options desired by the Marine Corps. In addition, most commercial systems using lead acid batteries would be extremely heavy if required to provide over 1kW for a significant length of time, over 3 hour.

This innovative research is to develop a Marine Portable Power Unit that can both act as a UPS system and a battery charging system while utilizing several of the currently deployed military batteries as their energy storage device. This Marine Portable Power Unit (MPPU) should be man portable, under 50lbs and easily transportable. The current deployed batteries suitable for this application include the BB-2590/U. The MPPU must be able to safely handle batteries in multiple series/parallel configurations. When rechargeable batteries are used the system will be able to act as both a UPS and a battery recharging station with batteries easily able to hot swap in-and-out. The in-put and out-put of the MPPU will have a 12VDC, 24VDC and 120VAC-1 phase 60 Hz capability. The Marine Corps will only fund proposals that are innovative and involve technical R&D risk.

PHASE I: Develop and demonstrate innovative MPPU design and packaging concepts that address the above requirements. Reasonable weights and volumes for system components based on current technology readiness levels (TRLs) should be used. Feasibility of the proposed design and anticipated improvements during Phase II should be supported by available scientific test data. Make recommendations for a Phase II detailed design and document in a technical report.

PHASE II: Build and demonstrate a packaged prototype device suitable for advanced laboratory and supervised field testing. Develop and implement a test plan that addresses the requirements needed for fieldable electrochemical power systems. Document and provide a Safety Assessment Report of the systems. Deliver several packaged prototype units for Marine Corps testing.

PHASE III: Prepare a manufacturing plan and marketing plan to sell this product to the government as well as the private sector. Make the necessary teaming arrangements with the manufacturers of the components used in this product.

PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL/DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: The commercial market would not utilize military batteries for a UPS system but this system could be modified to utilize commercially available batteries. Developing a UPS system that can work off numerous types of batteries could be useful in the electronics and telecommunications industry.

REFERENCES:
1. A Novel Online UPS with Universal Filtering Capability, by Farrukh Kamran and Thomas G. Habetler, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA.

KEYWORDS: Power Sources; Generators; BB-2590/U; Portable Power; Batteries, UPS; Battery charger

TPOC: William Story
Phone: (703)432-3695
Fax: (703)432-3532
Email: [email protected]

** TOPIC AUTHOR (TPOC) **

DoD Notice:   Between May 1, 2006 and June 13, 2006, you may talk directly with the Topic Author(s) to ask technical questions about the topics. Their contact information is listed above. For reasons of competitive fairness, direct communication between proposers and topic authors is not allowed starting June 14, 2006 , when DoD begins accepting proposals for this solicitation.

However, proposers may still submit written questions about solicitation topics through the SBIR/STTR Interactive Topic Information System (SITIS), in which the questioner and respondent remain anonymous and all questions and answers are posted electronically for general viewing until the solicitation closes. All proposers are advised to monitor SITIS (06.2 Q&A) during the solicitation period for questions and answers, and other significant information, relevant to the SBIR 06.2 topic under which they are proposing.

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